Globacom’s new chief executive officer, Ahmad Farroukh, has resumed, people with direct knowledge of the matter have told BusinessDay.
The former MTN Nigeria boss has spent less than a week in his new office. BusinessDay earlier reported that Globacom has appointed a CEO and is constituting a board of directors as part of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ‘s efforts to strengthen corporate governance in the telecoms industry.
The telco is expected to make an official announcement soon and has notified the NCC. An NCC document seen by BusinessDay read, “Globacom, as one of the key players in Nigeria’s telecommunication industry, has at times faced challenges regarding regulatory compliance and corporate governance.
Read also: Glo gets CEO, board of directors in transparency move
“These issues have occasionally required political interventions to address shortfalls in meeting regulatory standards and have led to disputed with other operators. However, with the regulator’s firm commitment to transparency and accountability, we are now witnessing a positive shift in Globacom’s approach.”
Other corporate governance steps include the payment of outstanding debts and improved responsiveness and compliance.
The telco’s operational shift follows a significant drop in its subscriber base, which fell by 69.20 percent in six months to 19.15 million in September from 62.19 million in March after a regulatory audit of the industry’s subscriber base revealed discrepancies.
“One Mobile Network Operator was found to have incorrectly reported around 40 million subscribers as active, despite the absence of any revenue-generating activity over a 90-day period. This was in direct violation of the Commission’s guidelines for determining active subscribers and led to an inflated report of the operator’s subscriber base, thereby skewing industry statistics,” the document from the NCC revealed.